Foreign Worlds
by Ckyblaze
Summary: Takes place after the Aliens (Alien 2) movie. This is about Cpl. Hicks and how he could survive after the end of the second movie, his subsequent encounter with the Weyland-Yutani corp. and how even good guys like Hicks can end up working for bad people. Does not take into account any of the games (like Colonial Marines).
1. Chapter 1

_Awakening_

It was cold. A wet mist rolled over his arms, it was freezing. Through his eyelid a white, sharp light hurt his tired eye. His legs felt numb, as if a giant weight had been set on them. He felt a feeling of warm rubber gloves on his arm and then a sting. It made him shiver. Breathing faster, his extremities began to feel again. A sharp pain ran through his body as it became aware of its wounds. Slowly, slowly, as his mind came out of the hypersleep, he remembered... Their mission, Ripley, the aliens... How they escaped.

He did not fully remember though, had he been unconscious? He must have been! With his right hand he felt around his head, how bad were his wounds? He could not tell, as he was so drained of energy that he could barely move, yet less reason. It felt as if he was lifted up into a sitting position. His eyesight blacked out for a second, but then returned. The room was lit up by the bright lights of the hypersleep bay. It looked blurry to his eye, as if he was still dreaming.

Looking over at Ripley and Newt, he saw they were still in hypersleep. Why then, had he awoken? He tried not to think about how alone he was here, pushing away the memories of his last awakening. Then he had woken to find his whole squad around himself… now they were all gone... dead.

"Corporal..." Hicks shuddered by the sound of a voice. Whose voice was that?! Was there someone in the hallway in front of him? Or had there really been someone in the room with him, someone who had lifted him up? He could not tell; he felt so drained of energy that he barely could keep himself upright in the pod, even less see what was going on in the hallway. Was it the medication that android-Bishop had given him before they left Acheron? Why then, would he be awake? He remembered the sting in his arm; someone must have neutralized the sedatives! Footsteps echoed somewhere. Obviously it was not the _aliens_. He sat more comfortable, relieving his burning chest. Why were the others still asleep? The question nagged him. The computers would have no reason for waking him up first, as he was wounded. That meant someone else had woken him.

"How do you feel?" Someone asked. Hicks jumped at the sound of the voice, as he had not noticed anyone entering. He looked around, finding a man standing beside himself. Had he been there all along? He looked up and saw... _Bishop_?!

"Bishop...they...repaired you?" He rasped whilst overlooking the man with his grainy eye. The other eye was covered in bandage and he could not see with it.

"Oh no, Corporal, I am the 'real deal'. I am human. But, the androids are based on my appearance."

"The real deal..." Hicks murmured. His head throbbed even more. Why was he here?

"But now is not the time for introductions, Corporal, you need to be taken care of first, then you can tell us what happened." Hicks was helped out of the hypersleep pod by two men he did not know. It was a slow process, as he had problems with moving his left arm and much of his chest. Was this the reason they had woken him? So he could give an oral statement of what had occurred on Acheron?

"What about..." Hicks began but Bishop silenced him with a lifted hand.

"You are after all ranking officer now Hicks, remember that! Your statement will be the official story. But first - to medbay!" That confirmed it; they wanted to know what had happened! Without having the time to protest Hicks was shoved off towards the medbay. As the doctor removed the layers of bandages that the android Bishop had wrapped around his acid burns, Hicks was left stunned. It was not a nice sight that met him in the mirrors. In addition to the burns, he could only make out diffuse shapes with his left eye and the entire left side of his face burned now that many of the painkillers had stopped working. It was not better with his chest. He could still not believe that the acid had eaten through his armour! It must have been extremely potent! It made him understand the Company's extreme interest in the aliens.

"That acid ate through more skin than I'd prefer." The doctor said. "We'll have to remove every trace of the acid before applying any regenerative gel. It will not be fun. I can not do more than give you some painkillers until it is finished!"

"The scars..." Hicks began, lightly touching the left side of his face.

"The will not go away anytime soon." The doctor said. "If you are lucky, you'll still be able to see with that eye of yours. But I wouldn't try it yet for a few weeks!" He continued, smiling wryly. "Now go get those clothes off and lie down... Bishop wishes to see you as soon as you are ready!" Hicks obeyed.


	2. Chapter 2

_Bishop  
_  
"And that is all?" Bishop asked. He eyed Hicks, his new bandages, and his tired face.

"I was just hoping to get home alive…" Hicks answered. How much more information did Bishop need? For over two hours he had given the most detailed account he could muster between the pain from the wounds, the medicine and his exhaustion, which had gotten worse after the intolerable procedure the doctor had put him thorough. Had the whole ship heard him, he wondered? He looked back at Bishop's face.

"We were not involved directly in your mission, but it was unfortunate for the USCM that your mission went as… offline as it did, I admit that. And what affects the USCM affects Weyland-Yutani…" Bishop said.

"Bates… he worked for the Company… for _you_…" Hicks began, but stopped. Such accusations were bold, perhaps too bold or a Corporal. When he had told them everything, would they need him anymore? Or was he expendable? Bishop just shrugged, raising his eyes to the ceiling.

"What Bates did, he did by his own accord, and he told you as much, did he not? I personally did not know what he was up to." Hicks looked at Bishop, he was right of course. Bates had been working solo.

"Yes, but-" Hicks began, but was interrupted.

"Do not rush to conclusions, Corporal. We are here to make sure that nothing got off Acheron." Bishop said, leaning back in his chair, his round eyes glistened in the murky office.

"I'm not that stupid, if you find anything, you'll take it with you!" Hicks blurted out. God, he was tired! Nor did he like to be played a fool. Besides, he did not have the patience _or_ the stamina for such hefty negotiations right now. It seemed to take Bishop off his high seat, and he rose. His expression had changed slightly. He looked have come to some conclusion to a problem.

"Well, finding… _something_… would pay for your little failure, would it not? Now think carefully, Hicks, I will only make this offer once! You obviously have your wits about you, so I will give you another chance. If we find anything left onboard we will study it, just as you said. You can become our… security consultant, in lack of a better title."

"Like Ripley? Why don't you take her?" Hicks sighed while leaning back on the chair… he was so sick of it all. Ripley, Ripley, Ripley… why did they not talk to her?

"She can't train marines; we will use her talents elsewhere. If we do not find anything we will just retire you somewhere and you will never hear from us again." Said Bishop and pushed his chair in towards the table, signing an end to the talk.

"If I do not take your offer?" Hicks asked. He already knew the answer of what would happen to him if he rejected it: he would not wake up alive from his hypersleep. In one way, he was relieved that it was such a black and white choice.

"If you decide to reject the offer you will no longer be protected by Company policies, I cannot guarantee anything. But I see you are exhausted from my bantering, think about my offer during dinner, and then come to me with your decision. These guards will see you to the mess." Bishop concluded and walked out, leaving a pair of thugs behind to help Hicks.

"Think about it?" Hicks murmured. He could barely get out of the chair! One of the thugs grabbed him under his arm and helped him up. Perhaps he did need to eat? Slowly he made his way through the dark corridor towards the SULACO's canteen.

There was another group of marines dining when he entered the mess. The sight of them made Hicks swallow extra hard, the memories he had from this very mess hall, when the android Bishop had been doing his knife trick, were just a few days old! A few days! How many had died in that time? One of the accompanying thugs had to support him by grabbing his elbow. Hicks took a deep breath and shook the man off. Placing his tray by an empty table he sank down. He sat for a long time, looking down at the marks left by the android's knife-trick, before he slowly began eating the soup that was served. It tasted quite bland, but it was warm, which was good enough for him.

"Hey! Are you alright?" A sturdy marine asked. He seemed to be a sergeant. His group sat over by the other table. Hicks did not respond. He did not even manage to look at the group. He gulped down the food, feeling an intolerable hunger spreading throughout his gut. Only the pain kept it at bay. Had he really been that raving hungry? "Hey!" The man called again. "What's up?" Hicks turned, finishing his meal.

"What do you want?!" He rasped while getting up. The marines were staring at him.

"Just checking…!" The sergeant said. "No harm meant!" Hicks eyed them. He felt so _alien_ to them!

"Well you checked too late!" He said angrily. Before anyone could respond he was already outside, heading towards Bishop's quarters. It was not far, but felt like an eternity. Bishop sat on his chair, writing something down on his computer. He stopped as Hicks entered the little office once again. A small smile spread over his thin lips.

"I see you have made up your mind!" He said. "That's good!" With a wave of his hand he dismissed the thugs.

"I haven't said anything yet." Hicks said.

"That's the difference between me and that android Bishop over in the hypersleep pod. Intuition. I have already deduced that you will accept the offer." Hicks just shook his head. "Please, Corporal, obviously you are not a fool, nor do you wish to get yourself killed, not if you can help other people. Besides, you want another crack at those Xenomorphs if you get the chance, don't you?" He continued to smile, happy over finding Hicks' weak point.

"I do. But I cannot do it alone. I will accept this deal with the Devil… But don't shove me under the table; I will make it my life's work exterminating those things!" Hicks said, sitting down on the chair opposite of Bishop. "If you want me to help other marines deal with this alien… the Xenomorph, it will be my rules on the field. I must be able to tell them what they're up against!" Bishop sat still for a while, quietly looking at the desk in front of him.

"You drive a hard bargain." He said. "I must speak to a few of my associates, but I think that your proposal will be cleared. After hearing your story, I can see why a team of marines may need to know what they are facing, at least in the sense of how it may attack." Bishop began typing something on his computer. "Now you should go get some rest, I will not require your help anytime soon. I must clear this whole mess of a mission up first." He spread his hands.

"Should I use a hypersleep pod?" Hicks asked, He sure looked forward to closing his eyes for a few months.

"Yes please." Bishop said whilst continuing to type. "Please use one of the spare pods, there is some technical hiccup with your old one according to the technicians." He gave Hicks a look. _A deadly technical hiccup_. Hicks nodded slowly."There should be plenty of other pods to choose from."

"I will. Just don't wake me until this mess heals up!" Hicks asked, lifting his bandaged arm. Bishop gave him a small smile.

"Don't worry; I will give you a few weeks inside that pod, perhaps even more, depending on how the situation turns out." Bishop said and sent him away. Within minutes, Hicks had lain down in a different pod, slipping into a blissful nothingness as some technicians overlooked the pod data.


	3. Chapter 3

_Interlude_

"It is a good idea having a team of marines on the stand by. It was demonstrated by the last mission that some ordinary trained marines will not be able to cope satisfactory with the… exotic elements of these kinds of missions." The voice on the telephone said.

"So Hicks' idea about a special force unit is on the go?" Bishop asked, drumming satisfactory with his fingers on his small temporary desk onboard the _Sulaco_.

"Yes." The voice on the other end of the telephone sounded almost amused. "He thinks he will help people and the Company gets a covert security unit. Everyone wins. I am _sure_ I will be able to arrange this with the USCM."

"The best thing about the plan is that it will stay confidential, the less people know about it the better… By the way, we have found three eggs from the "late" queen onboard the _Sulaco_, I am considering bringing two back to the bio weapons division, and leaving one for further… experiments." The voice on the other end chuckled lightly at Bishops voice.

"You always have such shrewd plans, Bishop. What are you planning?" It asked.

"Not far from here, we have a small outpost, the Fury 161 Correctional Facility. No one even remembers it anymore. I was thinking of observing the third egg… evolve naturally. When the impregnation process is done, we will arrange a small accident on the _Sulaco_, or something the like. We will make sure the EEVs land close to the colony. Seeing how fast the Xenomorphs spread and evolve would help our researchers significantly…" Bishop was interrupted.

"Alright, you got me on the first line! I assume you have a replacement for Hicks to go into the pod? They must think him dead."

"I do, I will tell the mechanics to mess with his old pod, whilst the real Hicks will stay asleep in another pod here on the _Sulaco_. I have plans of sending him to the Troy IV colony." Bishop said. He had indeed been very busy with trying to make Hicks' plan a viable one and it looked like he was going to be successful. Besides having a group capable of quelling a Xenomorph outbreak, the Company would have a covert unit at its disposal. He was very excited about this idea!

"Very nice plans, just make sure to cover it up nicely, and do not forget to reprogram the android!" The voice said.

"I was just getting to that. We have already begun inputting false ship data into his systems, in case the local Fury residents manage to activate him again. Not that I think that they will…"

"Well, better safe than sorry." The voice said.

"One last thing, could you arrange so that Hicks is written off as MIA? I cannot access any of the USCM file systems from here."

"I will of course, have a good night Michael, and be careful!"

"I always am!" Answered Bishop and ended the conversation. He sat silent for a moment, enjoying seeing some results from his labour. He was interrupted by a scientist at his door. "Is the egg ready?" He asked. The researcher nodded. "Then… we proceed as planned." The scientist nodded again and disappeared hurryingly down the corridor.


	4. Chapter 4

_Corporal_

"Hey there…" Someone whispered gently in his ear. It was as if in a dream, Hicks thought. Feeling completely relaxed and comfortable, he just wished to sleep forever. From the side, he could feel the warming rays of sunlight on his cheek. He gave up a sigh. It was a moment of bliss in space before the dark mass of memories once again encroached on his mind. To rid himself of the faces in his memories, he cautiously opened his eyes.

"Where am I?" He asked, feeling how dry his throat was. The nausea indicated he had been sleeping for a _long_ time, longer than he had ever slept before in a pod. To his left he saw, to his great surprise, a marine. She was a medic by the looks of her. Strangely it made him smile, if just a little.

"You are… hey, what are you smiling about?" She asked, cocking her head.

"Please, just tell me where I am." Hicks rasped. To his right was a window into space, he saw a bright young sun surrounded by the endless shining stars of the Milky Way galaxy. He looked to be in a space station, in a separate part of what looked to be a small medical department.

"You are above _Troy IV_. Weyland Yutani have a small outpost here, run by the USCM. A Company ship dropped you off here with a fresh load of marines. The Commander on board said to tell me that you have some new orders, Corporal. You should read them as soon as you have the strength to get out of bed."

"Not unexpected, I suppose…" Hicks said. He also realized that the acid burs were not hurting and that he could see with his left eye again. Had that Bishop type held his promise? It surprised him! Feeling around, he did not feel any bandages. Everything felt as good as normal, except for the actual scars.

"Shall I show you your orders?" She asked.

"I think I'll just… sleep for a while, thank you." Hicks muttered. Within a few moments, he was asleep. He did not dream, he not often did. But when he woke, he felt much sharper than he had been the last time they had revived him, onboard the _Sulaco_. By his bed he found a pile of clothes, including a t-shirt and a properly ranked long-sleeve shirt. He took them on. He could not cover his face, but hopefully no one would need to see the burns on his chest. His thoughts brought him back to Ripley. What was she doing? And how was Newt? A computer screen caught his attention. What had the medic told him… he had orders? He approached the computer. There was a starting message:

WELCOME. PLEASE CHOOSE MODE

Deciding to check his messages he typed:

ENTER USCM MAIN START

Hicks began typing the account details.

LOGIN

USERNAME: CORPORAL DWAYNE HICKS

PASSWORD: *************

The computer processed his request for a login and showed the start page in green letters on a black background:

WELCOME CORPORAL D. HICKS.

ACCOUNT DETAILS

SALARY ACCOUNT

MISSION REPORTS: 0

NEW MESSAGES: 1 (ONE)

Hicks went directly for the messages, he could review the other information later. Currently, he was interested in what Bishop had really managed to do during the time Hicks had been asleep. He typed:

OPEN NEW MESSAGE 1

TO: CPL. HICKS. TROY IV. USCM COLONY BASE.

FROM: M.B. WEYLAND YUTANI CORPORATION.

START MESSAGE:

THE USCM IN COOPERATION WITH THE WEYLAND-YUTANI COMPANY HAS APPROVED THE FORMATION OF A UNIT ESPECIALLY TRAINED FOR 'FOREIGN WORLDS MISSIONS'. AS YOU HAVE EXPRESSED THE WISH TO CONTINUE TO WORK WITH THE SUBJECT I HAVE RECOMMENDED YOU TO THE UNIT AS A 'CONSULTANT' ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY. YOU WILL REPRESENT OUR INTERESTS ON SITE. YOU WILL OF COURSE RETAIN YOUR RANK IN THE USCM.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT I WILL FORWARD MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUBJECT. I SINCERELY HOPE THAT YOU ACCEPT. M.B.

END MESSAGE.

A blinking text appeared under the message:

FURTHER REVEAL OF MESSAGE PENDING ON ANSWER

DO YOU ACCEPT?

Y/N

Hicks needn't long to type in his reply.

Y

GOOD CHOICE. I FIRST WISH TO BEGIN WITH BREIFING YOU THAT WE FOUND TWO EGGS LAID ONBOARD THE SULACO. IT IS OUR CONCLUSION THAT THE QUEEN MUST HAVE LAID THEM THERE BEFORE BEING TERMINATED. THANKFULLY BOTH OF THEM WERE FOUND COMPLETE WITH THE SO CALLED 'FACEHUGGERS' INSIDE OF THEM. OUR TEAM MANAGED TO ISOLATE THE EGGS BEFORE THEY HATCHED. IT IS LUCKY THAT THEY DID NOT HAVE THE TIME TO; OTHERWISE YOU WOULD NOT BE WHERE YOU ARE.

IF YOU DO NOT MIND, I WOULD LIKE YOU TO WRITE SECURITY DETAILS TO BE IMPLEMENTED AS TO HOW TO HANDLE THE SPECIMENS AS YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT. YOU SHOULD ALSO START THINKING ABOUT HOW TO PROPERLY TRAIN THE GROUP MARINES CURRENTLY STATIONED ON TROY IV. THEIR PERSONAL FILES WILL BE PASSED ON TO YOU LATER.

I ALSO WISHED TO BREIF YOU THAT, REGRETFULLY, RIPLEY AND THE GIRL NAMED REBECCA WERE BOTH FOUND TO HAVE BEEN IMPREGNATED BY PARASITES. IT IS OUR CONCLUSION THIS WAS DONE WHEN THEY SLEPT IN THE RESEARCH LAB ON ACHERON. THEY HAVE BEEN PROPERLY DEALT WITH, I ASSURE YOU. THE ANDROID WISHED FOR EARLY RETIREMENT.

I WILL AWAIT YOUR REPORT, IN THE MEANTIME, TRY TO RELAX. ONCE AGAIN I AM SORRY.

MICHAEL BISHOP.

END FULL MESSAGE

LOGOUT

THANK YOU FOR USING THE WYC MESSAGING SERVICE

Hicks sat down on the bed again. He had never been so calm in his entire life. Yet, his right hand was clutching the bedside. A deep shuddering breath escaped him.


	5. Chapter 5

_Marines_

Revolution after revolution, the space station continued to orbit the Troy colony. Almost two months had passed since he had woken up here. It had taken some time to explore everything the station had to offer, and after that he had travelled down to the colony, to visit the training marines. They preferred to be on the surface, as did Hicks, but he had been assigned quarters up on the space station, so he spent most of his time there. That did not stop him from exercising, as the station had a little gym as well.

Hicks sat by his desk, typing his weekly personal comment to Bishop about the security of the Company's research facility. He had never set foot in it himself, but he had got detailed plans on it, and they had not pleased him at all. For a few weeks now, he had been throwing ideas back and forth to the security manager in charge of the construction site, but he had been unreasonably tough to crack. It had been especially hard to get any changes through. Hicks hoped Bishop would do something about it! He had a leverage position Hicks did not.

Of course he did not trust the man, but as Hicks had made clear the last month; it would be in the Company's best interest to follow his advice, unless they wished to get several million worth of lab equipment blown, smashed and crashed to bits by those _things_. He leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. A supply ship was due in today. It brought new equipment to them, as this backwater planet did not have anything looking like a proper arsenal of weapons. A blinking green message on the screen notified him that it was on its way. He rose and headed towards the cargo dock, a few levels below his office.

"Corporal." Someone said. Hicks turned, seeing Sergeant Turner. He was a tall african-american man with a body like an athlete. Yet it was not disproportional, as the man was so tall.

"Yes sir?" Hicks asked.

"Do these new guns mean that we are finally getting off this rock?" Turner asked, joining Hicks in their walk down to the cargo bay.

"I hope not, sir." Hicks said.

"Hope not? What kind of marine are you, Hicks?" Turner grumbled.

"I did not mean-" Hicks began, but was interrupted.

"I don't know what you have been doing all your life, but we are tired of jumpin' around on this rock! We need something to do… soon!" Turner said. Although he was technically in charge, everyone knew that Hicks was the Company liaison.

"If you wish to go back to ordinary duty, just tell me. I can always find new men for the squad." Hicks countered. Of course he understood the Sergeant. The marines here were the same as on the _Sulaco_, a heavy bunch, much like his own squad had been. They were not used to being restricted _only_ to training for two months. Hicks had managed to include duct crawling and rappelling on the schedule, satisfying their lust for adventure for a week or so, but it was nothing like a real mission!

"Look, I won't mess with the Company but they aren't here… you are." Turner said.

"Sergeant, please. I'll take it up with them as soon as we get these weapons off the ship, okay? By the way, I think there are some new targets for you to practise on in the shipment as well. Just to keep you busy a little while longer..." Hicks said. He had ordered custom targets for training.

"Oh, are you going to put them in the ventilation ducts you have us crawling through?" The Sergeant joked. Hicks looked at him as they stopped by the large hall that was the cargo bay.

"I am going to put them there, yes." He said. The Sergeant looked at him. "I seriously am! Then we'll see what you're made of!"

"And you'll be the first one in? Blasting targets while crawling on all four?" Turner asked. Hicks just nodded. Oh, he knew how… He just wondered if the others knew how to kill the targets fast enough…?

Hicks looked through the opening. Were they still inside? He could hear echoes of their voices coming from inside the ventilation shaft, but he could not see anyone. Looking down at the stopwatch he saw that it had soon been 14 minutes since he let the pair of marines into "the maze" as his little contraption of ducts and ventilation shafts had been named. He looked at the others; they were doing some sparring on the grass. Above them, two pale moons circled Troy IV. The planet was mostly grassland with some few spots of tightly packed trees. Hicks could not figure out the practical application of sparring would have against the Xenomorphs, but one never knew, and he did not want to tell them that they probably did not need hand-to-hand combat training. Looking down again he saw the light of a flashlight. Crawling out of the darkness came two marines; Stronghold was soaked with sweat like she had been in a sauna and Day was not far behind, he stumbled out as Hicks marked the time.

"I… cannot see the practical application of that exercise…." Stronghold gasped.

"That was… 16 and a half minutes." Hicks said, adjusting his helmet. He was also dressed in the USCM armour, just as everybody else.

"I'm sorry…Hicks…" Day said. "But I have a problem with you doing comments like that, if you haven't been there yourself! Standing around the exit doesn't do it for you!"

"Eh, calm down Day." Stronghold said.

"I built the thing. It wouldn't be fair." Hicks said calmly.

"Once you're in there… it doesn't matter… Corporal." Day said.

"Time me." Hicks responded. Stronghold looked at him.

"You'll take it on alone?"

"As Day said, I helped design it, I'll manage. Are you ready?" Stronghold nodded, dragging Day along with her to the entrance of "the maze". Hicks checked his pulse rifle, nodded and ran inside. Turning on his flashlight, he tried to remain calm, yet focused. Remembering how it had felt running from those monsters for real set his heart racing every time.

"Staying frosty…Staying frosty…" He repeated to himself as the targets began appearing, they were as he had ordered them, shaped more like Xenomorphs than humans. He shot those in his way and only hastily turned his attention to those on the sides. The trickiest part was the one where you had to climb down a shaft first and then up… It really took the strength out of his muscles, but was good training! He heaved himself up and took a few breaths, now there was like a mini-shooting range, where hitting all the targets was crucial. Hicks just bombed the entire range with grenades instead, taking down two or three targets at the same time. He wondered why no one else did that? He continued forward, around a corner, and after some crawling flat finally emerged on the other side. He could see Stronghold and Day standing by the exit. He hurried out and rose from the crouching position. He dried some sweat of his face and then turned to Stronghold.

"It was 12 minutes, and five seconds." She said.

"He knows the layout, it's not fair!" Day whined. Stronghold smacked his helmet. Hicks just shook his head and smiled.

TO: M. BISHOP. WEYLAND YUTANI CORPORATION.

FROM: CPL. D. HICKS. TROY IV COLONY BASE.

THE TARGETS YOU SENT WORK WELL. YET MARINES GROW TIRED OF THEIR PROLONGED INACTIVITY. ANY MISSION WOULD BE APPRECIATED. IT WOULD BE A GOOD WAY OF ASSESSING THE CURRENT STRENGTH AND INTEGRITY OF THE GROUP, WHICH IS CRUCIAL TO ANY SUCCESSFUL MISSION AGAINST MORE POWERFUL ADVERSARIES. HICKS.

TO: CPL. D. HICKS. TROY IV COLONY BASE.

FROM: M. BISHOP. WEYLAND YUTANI CORPORATION.

THE DELAY IN MISSIONS IS DUE TO INVESTIGATIONS OF CONFIDENTIAL NATURE, ALTHOUGH IT IS MY WISH TO SOON SHARE THESE WITH YOU, AS THEY IN SOME RESPECT CONCERN YOUR FIELD OF EXPERTIESE. HOWEVER, I AM PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT A FIRST MISSION HAS BEEN CLEARED FOR THE UNIT.

A SHIP HAS BEEN SENT AND WILL ARRIVE WITHIN A FEW DAYS, BY THEN HAVE THE UNIT READY. ONBOARD WILL BE A CUSTOM MODEL OF THE ANDROID YOU ENCOUNTERED ON YOUR PREVIOUS MISSION. HE WILL EXPLAIN THE SITUATION, THE INVESTIGATION AND YOUR MISSION.

IT IS VITAL TO SUCCED WITH THIS MISSION TO PROVE THE WORTH OF THE FWM01 (FOREIGN WORLDS MISSIONS ONE) UNIT, AS THE UNIT NOW IS DESIGNATED. GOOD LUCK.

MICHAEL BISHOP.


	6. Chapter 6

_Android_

The ship which was to pick them up was roughly half the size of the _Sulaco_. It docked with the orbiting station, where all the marines had gathered. They were not happy, but rather expectant of what was to come. The idea of getting off Troy IV had eased the mood for most of them. Hicks, being the only one slightly reserved against leaving, sat in the back of the docking bay, waiting for the android. He did not know what to think about working with an android again, but having someone skilled in technology and flight was always positive. He came to think of Ripley's reaction to android Bishop, how she seemed not to have trusted him. Could this android also have some ulterior motive for being here? He would have to find it out.

The android came off after the food shipments to the colony had been unloaded, pale and just as slim as Hicks remembered him. But then, it was not the same unit, they just looked identical. It stuck Hicks how much he actually resembled the real Bishop. The skin was paler, as the android's circulation fluids was white, but otherwise he was a copy. Hicks wondered why Bishop made androids which resembled himself? The android approached Sergeant Turner, who oversaw the unloading and they talked for a while before Turner pointed at Hicks. The android nodded and moved on to him.

"Corporal Hicks?" He asked.

"That's me…" Hicks answered. "What should I call you?"

"I have not been given any designation yet, except for the purely technical one, which I do not think you would be interested in hearing nor calling me by."

"How come? I have never met anyone without a name…" Hicks said.

"Well, Bishop, Michael Bishop that is, thought it would be too much with three Bishops to refer to in the correspondence." The android said. He seemed slightly amused about the thought. So was Hicks.

"It makes sense, but you need a name!" Hicks smirked. "Just pick something."

"Gabriel?" The android asked.

"Does it mean anything special to you?" Hicks asked, how was a droid supposed to answer such a question?

"It is quite logical actually; Michael means 'who is like God'. He is my creator, my God, so to say. Gabriel means 'strong man of God'. It thought it might fit me."

"Strong man of God?" Hicks asked, the android did not look too strong, but Hicks knew androids were actually quite physically imposing, if they needed to be. Or perhaps he referred to his processing power? "Gabriel is good." Hicks finally said. "Now, _Gabriel_, do we need to talk?"

"Yes, I would first like to inform all here about the mission in general; afterwards I can refer to you what Bishop wished you to know, in private."

"Go ahead." Hicks said. Gabriel turned and clapped his hands so loud that it turned everyone's attention to him. Hicks figured that under that small frame he indeed had to be quite strong.

"I have been sent here to inform you about your mission!" He said loudly.

"Finally." Someone in the crowd murmured.

"Some weeks ago, a ship exploring a new system came upon a planet where a ship had crashed. They later established that the ship was not of our design. This mission's priority will be to go there to explore the place where it crashed and if possible rescue any survivors. Our secondary priority will be to bring back any technology that can be salvaged from the ship. The team that explored the system only did so from space, but they _did_ register lifesigns. We do not know of what kind though, so be careful and choose a wide variety of weapons, including flamethrowers."

"And grenades!" Hicks added.

"And grenades." Gabriel repeated. "We leave in four hours." It was the first time Hicks had seen the marines so quiet. Finally, Day stepped forward and asked:

"Are you saying that it is an _alien_ shipwreck?" He put his hands at his sides, looking at Gabriel.

"We do not know what it is, that is why we are going there." Gabriel responded.

"So it's alien!" Day commented. "Hicks, did you know about this?" Everyone turned to Hicks.

"Know what?" Hicks responded calmly.

"Bah!" Said Day and walked away. Everyone else scattered as well. Only the medic, Creux as her name was, approached the pair. It had been she who had been at Hicks' side when he had woken. She smiled.

"Hello Hicks." He nodded. She turned to Gabriel. "I am Creux."

"Creux? Yes, I have your file. I am Gabriel; I will come along on the mission with you." He shook her hand.

"It shall be most interesting, I have never had the chance to work with an android before!" Creux said, still smiling.

"And I have not yet worked that much with humans."

"Alright! See you later then?" She said.

"Yes." Gabriel responded. Creux nodded and went away.

"Come on, we can go to my room." Hicks said and stood. Gabriel followed him. They soon arrived and Hicks sat down, inviting Gabriel to sit as well. He sat down. "Now tell me what the others don't need to know."

"You heard what I said to the group. That is all true. This alien technology can be invaluable to the Company if we managed to get a hold of it, because of this Bishop wished you to make sure that everything possible is done in order to retrieve it."

"What about rescuing the survivors from the crash?" Hicks asked.

"They might be hostile, Bishop said that there is not much hope we will actually find anyone in need of assistance."

"Really? Do you know anything about these aliens?" Hicks asked. "If they survived the crash… it would be helpful to know what potential danger they could pose to the unit."

"Actually, I have some information on the species, but as you understand, this conversation stays between you and me… until the need arises to tell the others of course. Bishop was very clear on that point, said it was your side of the bargain? If we find the ship deserted they do not need to know." Hicks did not like the idea of not telling anyone about a potential danger, but as long as he could tell them if the need arose, it was acceptable.

"So tell me." He said. "What type of alien is it?"

"The aliens that built the ship are of a warrior race. They enjoy hunting to a high degree, but only prey that can fend for itself. This includes hunting Xenomorphs. They are more technically advanced than us, and have on several occasions visited Earth to hunt humans, that is how we have gotten hold of some of their technology. There is also some writings in Antarctica on the subject, but that is irrelevant. Their weapon arsenal is formidable, but they prefer to hunt with advanced spears, nets and shoulder cannons. They also possess a range of cloaking devices."

"Why does it not surprise me that the Company knew?" Hicks asked and pulled out a cigarette. "Want one?" He asked. Gabriel declined.

"Perhaps you already guessed that they knew?" Gabriel said.

"It was a rhetorical question, but yes, you are right. I guessed that they knew, and I hope to learn more about these aliens." Hicks answered.

"Then, we are similar, you and I." Gabriel said.

"We are?" Hicks asked.

"I also wish to know more about the obscure parts of the universe, it could greatly benefit humans, and androids as well. Perhaps even help my kind to achieve higher cognitive functions." Gabriel gave a little tap on his skull.

"You think the aliens can help do that?" Hicks asked, blowing out some smoke from his nose.

"Yes, especially if we get their technology in our hands. As I understood it from Bishop, we need to have any advantage possible in the case they turn hostile." Gabriel answered.

"You don't think that wish was programmed into you by the Company?" Hicks asked. The question made Gabriel stay silent for a while.

"I never thought about that. You may be right, Corporal."

"Call me Hicks; you're not marine, are you?"

"Hicks? Why not Dwayne?" Gabriel asked.

"Dwayne? I guess you could call me that, if you want." Hicks said. Gabriel nodded.

"I read your file, nobody refers to you as Dwayne." Gabriel said, Hicks thought he saw some faint trace of a smile on his android's face.

"Really, what more did it say?"

"That's confidential…" Gabriel said.

"Of course it is… but I think we have spent enough time talking. I need to get my things." Hicks said and rose.

"I'll meet you back at the ship." Gabriel responded. They went their separate ways.

He stood looking down at the hypersleep pod. Half of the squad was already in stasis, slumbering. Hicks had no wish to ever set foot in one again. Sergeant Turner was standing next to him, observing him.

"It's only one and a half week, you won't have the time to get any nausea at all." He said. Hicks turned to him.

"Do you really think I'm afraid of some nausea? I have been in these pods more times than I can remember."

"Then what? Does it have anything to do with that scar? You never told me what that 'badge of honour' on your face was from?"

"Please, you should sleep. I will make sure everyone's locked up tight." Hicks said slowly. Turner stood looking at him for a while, but decided not to push the subject. He lay down, shutting the pod behind him. As time went by, the rest of the crew, Stronghold, Day and the pilot Darwin, a red freckled thing with stamina beyond compare, also lay down to sleep. Hicks made sure they were properly asleep before stopping. It was silent on the ship now, the lighting was slightly dimmed. Standing there, he could feel the chill of the ship give him goosebumps; he reluctantly looked at the pod.

"You are still awake?" Gabriel asked. His voice made Hicks bounce half a metre to the side.

"I did not hear you!" Hicks exclaimed, putting a hand over his heart.

"I thought I was alone, I had no need to be heard. Are you going to…" Gabriel looked at the pod.

"No, I will not." Hicks said.

"You are thinking about what happened to Ripley?" Gabriel asked, sitting down on a bench. Hicks did not answer; instead he went to a locker, where he retrieved an overall.

"Let's not talk about that." Hicks said and sat down next to Gabriel. They both looked on the hypersleep pods. "Are you going to…?"

"As long as you are awake, no." Gabriel said.

"Well then, do you know how to fire a gun?"

"You know I can not do that!" Gabriel said.

"Then… while we are alone, let me show you how…!"

It was after dinner that Hicks was finally able to re-write the correct program code for Gabriel. Content, he sat and waited for Gabriel to return from his bootup state. He was connected via a cord to a computer. The cord was attached to the androids finger in a place under the pointer finger's nail. It was like a little _hatch_ that could be opened whenever Gabriel needed to connect to a computer. Hicks found it a little disturbing, but he guessed it was a better place to have an interface than inside the ear.

He had now downloaded a simple command to bypass the anti-weapons restriction of the android's programming. Gabriel had written the most part of it during dinner, but Hicks had complemented it with his basic skills of programming during the time that Gabriel had been offline. It was strictly illegal to do such a thing, but neither Hicks nor Gabriel had mentioned this. It was surprising, as androids usually remarked about such things, but Gabriel had introduced himself as a 'custom' model. That probably meant that Bishop had designed him personally, he was after all a Synthetic Component Designer for Weyland Yutani!

Hick had been thinking of giving the android a weapon ever since he first met him, having a second pair of hands – with a gun in them – was well worth the risk of something going wrong. Yet he held his hand on his pistol as Gabriel was beginning to "wake up" from his re-boot.

"Are you online?" Hicks asked. Slightly delayed, Gabriel answered:

"I am… everything is working correct. I believe the code was satisfactory. We only need to try if it works." Gabriel blinked a few times. "Very good." He commented, more to himself than to Hicks.

"Is there a way to try it without a gun?" Hicks asked. Gabriel smirked, he seemed a little amused.

"You don't trust me?" He asked.

"No." Hicks answered. "I'll give you a few days before I give you a gun."

"Then, you must let me hit you. That would be the only way to check if I am capable of aggressive action." Gabriel said. "Are you ready?"

"Okay, don't knock me out though." Hicks responded and readied himself. Gabriel raised his hand, clasped his fist and smacked Hicks on his chin so hard that he sat down on the floor. "Damn!" He said and touched his chin.

"It is a very releasing sensation; I believe that this modification will greatly help me increase my autonomous functioning." Gabriel mused, looking at his hands.

"Autonomous functioning…just help me up will you?" Hicks muttered, reaching out a hand. Gabriel heaved him up.


	7. Chapter 7

_Planet_

"You have been awake all this time?" Turner asked Hicks.

"_We_ have, Gabriel remained active as well." Hicks answered. The landing craft jumped in the atmosphere as they descended through the clouds of the unnamed planet. He began feeling sleepy, but Gabriel's voice woke him. He sat by Darwin in the second pilot seat and his voice was heard trough the radio in Hicks' ear.

"We are to expect heavy rain the rest of the day." Gabriel said. "Bring your raincoats."

"Terrific…" Day muttered. Stronghold shushed him. Hicks looked to the back, where the two rookies sat. He had not interacted much with them during the training sessions on Troy and they mostly kept to themselves or to Turner during mealtimes. It had felt like they had almost been avoiding him, why he did not understand. His best guess was that they were more trusting towards Turner, as he was their Sergeant. The man was called Vespasian and the woman Johnson. The landing craft tilted slightly and there was a big jump before it evened out.

"We are approaching our landing site." Darwin said. Hicks swallowed, making sure he had a double band of grenades and ammo. With a _thunk!_ the ship sat down on the planet. For a moment there was silence. They were released from their seats.

"We are heading east!" Turner said. "Move out!" The unit began exiting the craft.

"I am coming with you." Gabriel stated while pulling out a poncho from his little bag.

"What? Who'll be around watching us then?" Turner asked.

"Darwin volunteered." Gabriel responded. "He wishes to guard his own ship."

"Are you in on this, Darwin?" Turner asked. Darwin turned to them, nodding.

"Of course, you go find your ship; I'll make sure no one steals ours."

"_Do you think the aliens will steal your ship?"_ Day asked via the com from outside.

"Let's go!" Turner said. Hicks shot Gabriel an eye; he returned it with a slight bend to his head. Had he really convinced Darwin to stay? Hicks looked at Darwin again, hoping they were doing the right thing by leave him here. Yet there was no other way without revealing too much. He turned and pulling up his hood, walked outside. A heavy rain met him blowing into his eyes, the wind ripped at his cloak and very soon his boots would be flooded with mud and water. The sky above was dark grey and he could not make out any sun. From above some distant mountains, thunder rolled down towards them in long cracks. They had landed on a raised hill, it was mostly clear from trees, but was still in the jungle. The colours of the leaves varied from grey to brown and dark green. It was not a welcoming sight. Looking around, he wondered where the alien ship had crashed. It had to be close by somewhere.

"Vespasian and Day, take point!" Turner called. "Hicks, you take our six with that android of yours! Let's go!" Darwin looked after them as they moved cautiously down the hill. Hicks looked back at him. Darwin gave a wave and closed the hatch to the ship. As they moved further into the jungle, it became even murkier. Drifting mist made it difficult to perceive anything. It was impossible to see anything more than a few meters in front of them and the cold mist reminded Hicks of the hypersleep pod. He pulled down his helmet further over his eyes, as to avoid the rain. In his mind, he thought about what might be coming.

Would everyone be prepared for what was coming? He sighed. Perhaps there was nothing coming? Perhaps, it was only in his mind that the fear still lived. However much he tried, he could not shake the bad feeling off. He looked at Gabriel, who was taking big strides next to him. He looked out of place without the typical USCM armour, helmet and gun that the others had. The one thing he really had in common with the marines was the boots. Obviously, he had borrowed them from someone. Gabriel noticed him.

"Yes?" He asked. Hicks looked forward; the others were at least five metres ahead of them, they would not hear.

"Do you think… there are Xenomorphs here?" Hicks asked.

"Perhaps…" Gabriel answered. "If we are able to access the ship, we may look for ourselves, the signs are pretty obvious."

"For those who know what to look for." Hicks commented.

"Yes… but we know, do we not? It's our job, our mission, even though it is confidential." Gabriel said. "In any case, I brought along this." He pulled the poncho back, revealing a holster with a gun. Hicks nodded in surprise.

"Unexpected." He said.

"Indeed…" Gabriel muttered. They went forward in silence. By the time they were approaching their designated location, it had already turned dark. Gabriel had been called ahead, as his sight was slightly better in the dark.

"We should have arrived by now!" Day said. Gabriel stopped, looking down on a map.

"Day is correct. We should have." He looked around again, his gaze moving up before stopping on the tops of the trees. "They are broken." He said.

"Are you saying… that it did not land here?" Day asked.

"If only we could see in what direction they are bent, we would have a heading." Gabriel replied. "Could you climb up there, Day?" Day looked surprised by the question. Then he looked up.

"Yes, but not in the dark. If we wait until morning, I'll gladly scuttle up there." Turner looked at Hicks, who nodded.

"We wouldn't want to get lost." Hicks said.

"Then, it looks like we are spending the night in the open!" Turner said. "Someone, make a tent!" The unit looked at him, some of them muttering, and then they shook their heads and began setting up camp.


	8. Chapter 8

_Ship_

Hicks had been pleasantly asleep most of the night. He had built a little shelter out of big round leafs and his rain poncho, under which he managed to remain out of the rain's way. As Gabriel was up all night, he had not needed to keep guard. He woke feeling more relaxed than yesterday. The rain had stopped, yet the clouds were still there, threatening to begin pouring down rain. To his side, Gabriel was studying some local critter.

"Good morning!" Vespasian said loudly, almost scolding.

"Oh! Had a good night's sleep?" Stronghold asked.

"I did, thank you. Didn't you?" Hicks asked.

"They were up most of the night." Gabriel said, still not lifting his eyes from the little animal. Hicks looked at them, they nodded. "Most of the time they complained about the rain."

"_Hey! It's that way!_" Someone called over the com. Hicks stood up and looked at the treetops. Perched in the highest tree sat Day with a pair of binoculars. "_I can see it!_"

"Really?" Creux asked. "It's there?" She looked at Turner, as if she until this point had not believed that the ship actually existed. Gabriel stood up as well, letting the little animal go.

"We should head out." He said. Turner nodded. He looked around, finally asking:

"Where is Private Johnson?" Hicks rose and counted heads. There were seven of them except him. One was missing.

"When did anyone last see her?" He asked. Everyone shrugged at the question. "Nobody? What the hell did I train you for?" Hicks asked angrily. "Shit! Come on Gabriel, let's go!" He stomped away into the forest, there would be no use looking for someone who had not been seen since nightfall! He could hear the others following him.

"Aren't we going to look for her?" Vespasian asked.

"There is only one place we could possibly find her, in the ship, that's where the Corporal is taking us." Gabriel commented.

"Somebody put the life-signs detector on!" Hicks said. So this wasn't going to be an easy walk in the park?

"Do you think there are… _aliens _here?" Day asked. Stronghold hit him on the helmet.

"Shut it!" She said.

Hicks heaved himself out of some mighty thick vegetation out on burnt ground. There he stopped while looking ahead. He could barely believe his eyes. In front of him was what seemed to be the tail end of a ship! It was burnt from the entrance into the atmosphere. Underneath, where the ground had worn off the burns, it glimmered with a rusty red colour. It was not that big either.

"Are you recording this, Darwin?" Hicks asked into the microphone, tapping the little camera on his helmet.

"_I…am, everything! Do you think Johnson could be in there?"_ Darwin responded.

"Maybe… Still no feed from her camera?" Hicks asked.

"_Nothing!"_ Darwin responded_. "It went black this night, thought she took it off!"_ Hicks counted the others as they emerged from the jungle. They all stopped and looked; there was fear in their eyes, but not as much as he had expected.

"Anything on the life-signs detector?" He asked.

"No, just small wildlife." Vespasian said.

"Let's go then." Hicks said and took point. "We need a point of entry!" They looked around, circling round the ship. They found their point of entry by the nose of the ship, where there was something that looked like an automatic pressurized sliding door. Hicks touched what seemed to be the release mechanism, and it fell inward.

"How did you know…?" Began Day.

"I guessed…!" Said Hicks. "It's a door."

"Sir… I have a life-sign…" Vespasian said to Turner. Hicks, closely followed by Gabriel looked at the device. "It is here, outside, with us." Vespasian said.

"It could be just a wild animal." Turner pondered, looking around.

"We must get inside!" Hicks said, his stomach twisting slightly. He slowed his breath, focusing.

"I must agree with the Corporal." Gabriel said. His eyes were already scanning the jungle. Luckily, there was a long strip of grass between the ship and the jungle. Hicks looked at the life sign again. It was closer. Unwillingly his heart was beating faster, yet he tried not to look alarmed.

"It could be Johnson!" Creux said. Hicks looked out over the jungle again. It was too quiet. Any romping stomping human would have made noises. He looked at Gabriel, who nodded gently in the direction of the door.

"Why don't some of us go inside? Check the place out? You others can make a perimeter here by the door, to wait it out." Hicks suggested. Did he really say that? Was he to leave them here? If he had been in command…

"I was going to leave someone by the door anyway, so alright, who wants to go with the Corporal?" Turner asked. There was silence. Only the _beep-beep_ of the life signs detector sounded. Gabriel raised a hand.

"Obviously." Turner said, almost scowling. He gave Gabriel a sideways glance.

"I will go as well!" Day said. "I mean… What if there really are aliens here? With this kind of technology… we don't stand a chance against them! I better fight them inside!"

"What if it's Johnson, eh, Day?" Stronghold asked.

"Then you'll be here!" Day responded. "I'm going with them!" He said and pointed at Hicks and Gabriel.

"Wise choice." Gabriel said. Hicks nodded and stepped over the threshold of the ship, it was dark. Gabriel followed him, and last came Day. Both marines turned on their flashlights. Hicks took a final look at the outside. Turner was confident that he could handle whatever was coming out of the bushes… Hicks just hoped it was Johnson, he really did. In the end he turned back to the inner airlock door. The small corridor they had entered was most probably some kind of intermediate airlock. He stopped by the inner door.

"If we open it, it will most likely shut the outer door." Gabriel said.

"Do you think they will be able to handle _them_ if they come?" Hicks asked.

"They are four, and have a life signs detector, if they do not… There is nothing we can do to help them." Gabriel said. That meant that if they could not fight off a Xenomorph, they had no business in the FWM01 team. "Anyway, Turner is still your commanding officer, if he wants to stay, then let him stay." Gabriel continued. Hicks just wished he had such a logical view.

"It is true, if he wants to stay out there, it's his choice." Day said. Hicks nodded, the sooner they had a look through this ship, the faster they could get back out of there! He put his hand on the round mechanism on the door. Behind them the door to the outside closed, entombing them into the ship. It became very quiet, only a vague hum, probably from the ventilation, penetrated the stillness. The door opened.

The hallway was permeated by a faint red light, besides that only some glowing wall-panels shed light in the darkness. Hicks looked up; it was a rounded ceiling, not squared as in human-made ships. The ventilation ducts were still there though.

"This is not a big ship." Gabriel said. "We should head to the control room, perhaps there is some clue to why this ship crashed."

"Carefully and silently." Hicks said. "Day, you keep an eye forward, I'll go behind you two." They began moving into the ship. The interior seemed to absorb most of the sounds they made. Gabriel stopped by a split in the corridor and looked around.

"I guess the command central is this way." He nodded to the left. Day went ahead.

"There is a door here, a less robust one." Hicks moved forward.

"Can it be opened?" He asked. Gabriel nodded and touched a panel by the door. The door split up and hissed open.

"Oh, my!" Day said, looking around. Hicks did the same. It was, although quite small, most certainly the control room. In front of them was what seemed to be live video screen, containing information about the spaceship. Hicks had no clue how to make sense of it though. There were controls as well, but they looked bigger and cruder than those fit for human hands.

"Can you make any sense out of this?" He asked Gabriel, who looked almost happy with finding such a treasure-chest of information.

"Probably not in the next few hours… But I can try. You should continue to investigate the rest of the ship though, make sure no one is here." Hicks nodded.

"Close the door after us, if you hear anything… call us! _Immediately!_" Hicks said.

"Of course, I'm not stupid…!" Gabriel said. Day just shook his head. Without further ado, Hicks exited the command central and closed it after Day was out. They did not speak; instead Day took point and headed down the other corridor. They soon came upon a larger door, which opened up into something that looked like a cargo bay. On the walls hung several skulls, at least that was what they looked like.

"This must be… some sort of weird manifestation of their…culture." Hicks whispered.

"Culture? Stone-age culture perhaps!" Day answered.

"They build space-ships…" Hicks muttered. "Let's go, there is no sign of anything out of the ordinary here." They exited and closed the door. The hallway bent to the left, revealing a door that seemed to go to the tail compartment of the ship. Something in the air made both Hicks and Day freeze for a second. Hicks gave Day a look, gesturing for him to position himself to the left side of the door. Hicks took the right side, waited a second, and then pushed the panel that opened the door. The first thing he heard was the falling of rain on the floor, the room was bright too, but smelled awful. Hicks quickly rounded the threshold and looked over the room. He now knew what was making the smell…

"Johnson!" Cried Day, moving forward. Hicks lashed out with his hand, pulling Day back. Johnson was stuck to the wall. The entire room had been covered in the black oily residue that the Xenomorphs built their lairs from. So they _were_ here!

"What are you…?!" Began Day, but was pulled out of the room by Hicks, who closed the door after them.

"You can't help her now!" Hicks said in a low voice. Day pulled himself from his grip.

"What? Why?" He said, looking at the door.

"Listen… it is not the aliens that built this ship that did… _that_ to her. There is another kind!"

"You say there are two kinds? Here?"

"Listen, they reproduce my incubating their young in bodies of other animals, do you understand? The best thing to do is to destroy everything in that room…" Hicks took a deep breath. The memories of his own unit made him feel nauseous. His hand went to his chest, where he still had the scars from the burns. Not even the armour could make him forget them… He could remember them all so vividly… A hand pushed at him.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Day asked. "Did you not hear me?" Hicks shook his head.

"I'm…uh...fine…" He said.

"So, you knew they were here… But did not tell us? These aliens?" Day asked, He looked angry, and constantly looked back at the door.

"I did not. Only about those who built the ship, but they have probably met the same fate as Johnson in there…that's why they're not here." Day gave him a look.

"But she is still alive, I could see it!" He said.

"That's why we need to kill her! It's better than having one of those aliens bursting out of her chest!" Hicks replied. "If you cannot, I will, I…must." Hicks sighed. Day stood silent for a moment; his hand went up to the headphone.

"Darwin… are you there?" He asked. Hicks looked around. They only had the right side of the ship left to explore, if there weren't any more leaks, they could easily seal this door off… That would stop any Xenomorphs from coming inside. He listened for a reply from Darwin; only static noise was heard on the radio channels.

"This ship must have some sort of shielding." Said Hicks, he pushed out a grenade from his belt. Then he took another. _Just in case…_

"Really?" Asked Day, looking at the grenades. His face was sour.

"Yes." Hicks said. "Gabriel, do you hear me?" He asked through the microphone.

"_I read you."_ Gabriel answered. _"You have found something?"_

"It looks like a nest of the Xenomorphs."

"_So… they are here, what are you going to do?"_

"Blow it up, Johnson's in there… If that thing emerges from her then we have another of those things to deal with."

"_As it is not our mission to study them, I approve of your actions, Corporal. You cannot do anything more for her. Do it. Gabriel out."_

"You're just…going to do it…? Like that?" Day asked. Hicks armed the grenades, opened the door and threw them inside. He looked at Johnson, she was awake now. She slowly nodded her head.

"Goodbye, Paul. Thank you." She said to Day. Hicks closed the door again, covering his head with his arms. Day managed to step aside. The blows shook the entire ship, buckling the doors towards the hallway. There would be no opening them again.

"_Hicks?"_ It was Gabriel again, on the radio.

"What is it?" Hicks answered.

"_If Johnson was in there… who or what was that life sign outside?" _Hicks stumbled to his feet. What a fool he had been leaving them outside! And the radio-shielded hull! Who knows what they had been doing outside! He grabbed hold of Day and pushed him towards the airlock.

"We are on our way!" He called into the microphone.


	9. Chapter 9

_Alien_

It was not far, yet it took an eternity for Hicks to get to the airlock. He punched the opening device and entered, Day came after him. He closed the inner door and turned his attention to the outer door.

"Shoot anything that's black and moving." Hicks said and touched the device. The door opened up into the jungle. Hicks cautiously took a step out.

"This is Hicks!" He whispered through the radio. "Where are you?" Before anyone could respond, gunfire was heard from the right. He dove to the ground and looked around the corner of the protruding entrance. He could see over the relatively low shrubs that it was Stronghold.

"Hicks! They're after us!" She screamed at him. "Open the damn door!"

"It's open!" He called back.

"Look, it is Vespasian… and Creux!" Day called, pointing in the opposite direction. Stronghold rushed in between Hicks and Day, panting.

"Is it there?" She asked. Hicks scanned the area. There was nothing! He looked towards the other two… now _there_ was something he remembered. Behind them, gaining ground quickly was a Xenomorph. It reminded Hicks of a rabid dog, drooling and biting at whatever it could find.

"Shoot it, Day! Slow it down!" They opened fire. When the Xenomorph noticed them, it hissed at them, letting Vespasian and Creux off its sight. "Get down!" Hicks called. Vespasian and Creux both fell like dead to the ground as he launched a grenade from his pulse rifle. It hit the Xenomorph's head and exploded. Hicks pulled Day behind the cover of the protruding entrance as the acid rained down from the exploded body. As it ended, he ran out and looked at the two marines on the ground. Vespasian had thrown away his helmet, through which the acid had burned a hole, Creux her weapon. Hicks got them on their feet and heaved them towards the entrance.

"Come on! We can't lie around in the grass all day!" He said. "Get inside!" They shuffled into the cramped airlock. Hicks closed the outer door and they all stumbled out into the hallway. Gabriel was already there, looking warily at them.

"Where's Turner?" He asked. Stronghold shook her head whilst sitting down on the floor. It looked like she was about to cry.

"They caught him… I couldn't…"

"I understand." Gabriel said. "We should proceed to the command centre. It will be safer there." Day helped Stronghold up. They all moved into the small room. There were two big armchairs there; Day put Stronghold in one of them. There was complete silence in the room. Hicks took off his helmet for a moment, drying the sweat from his forehead. Thankfully, it was not as humid as out in the jungle. Vespasian sat by a wall to the right, looking over some small acid burn he had got on his hand. Creux helped him. Hicks let everyone calm down before he spoke.

"Why did you split up?" He asked.

"There were two life signs, the Sergeant sent Vespasian and Creux to see what it was, while we stayed put. But then we heard a horrible roar from the forest, and a lot of commotion, as if there was some fight… We thought that it might be Johnson…" Stronghold said. She was in charge now, technically, as she was a Lance Corporal. Hicks sighed.

"We found Johnson, we could not help her." Day said.

"You found her? Here?" Creux asked. "Perhaps I…"

"No." Hicks interrupted. "Those things, the black aliens, they are called Xenomorphs. Their offspring grows inside living tissue, here…" Hicks pointed at his chest.

"There are two _different_ aliens now?" Vespasian asked. "Did you know about them?"

"There was nothing we could do to help her…" Day pushed in.

"Not that they were here, otherwise I would have told you." Hicks answered.

"You killed Johnson…?" Stronghold asked, rising. Hicks looked at her.

"If we had not done so… we all could have been killed by the growing Xenomorph inside her…" Stronghold walked up to him and suddenly slapped him over his cheek so hard that he almost fell to the floor.

"What are you?!" She asked. "How could you?!"

"I…didn't-" Began Hicks, but stopped. He did not know what to say. It was, in a way, unexplainable. If you had not been running from them, hunted to the brink of your sanity… and perhaps even _hunted_ them in turn, like Ripley… like _Ellen_… how could you know? Stronghold looked around.

"Do you know what Sergeant Turner told me, before we left Troy IV?" She asked. "He told me about the Corporal here…" She pointed at Hicks, he looked up, raising his eyebrows. "His entire unit was wiped out on their last mission! The entire unit! Only he survived… do you know why? Because a warrant officer dragged him back to the ship alive!"

"Don't speak of matters you only know as gossip!" Gabriel said. "Humans!" He cursed.

"Those scars, Corporal, they aren't badges of honour are they? They are reminders of shame!" Hicks dropped his helmet. It felt like his eyes were filled with the same acid that had burned his chest. Slamming the door console he went out, shutting it behind him.

There was a silence in the vacuum left by Hicks that none dared fill until Gabriel, who had heard the receding steps in the hallway outside, stood up from the second armchair he had occupied for a while. He rose with the mechanical charm only an android was capable of in such dire moments.

"I cannot possibly imagine…" He began in an easy tone. "What goes on in your minds, in your highly-advanced minds… but… there are aliens just outside the doorstep, and you send away the only person that might actually be able to help you?" The silence lingered. "I have all your personnel files in here…" He pointed to his head. "I had expected more… But anyway, you should remain here… You should be safe here, unless the owners of this ship return of course. I need to go and talk to the Corporal." Gabriel started off to the door. Day did not say anything, instead it was Vespasian.

"What do we do if they come back?"

"You'll figure it out." Gabriel said and walked out. He closed the door and stopped to listen. His mission priorities were, after all, not to keep _them_ alive; it was to keep Corporal Hicks alive. _Dwayne_. It had been hard to imagine any successful outcome before Hicks had tweaked his programming into allowing him to carry arms, now the odds were higher, as he could defend himself.

He began by looking in the trophy room, full of skulls. It was empty. Then he went past the buckled door and onto the right side of the ship. There were two doors, one led into the large engine room in the middle, that stretched out below the ship and one to crew quarters on the right side. He looked into the crew quarters.

Hicks was crouching by something that looked like a bed. With his knife he lifted a veil that lay over something that looked like a carcass. The chest had been completely… destroyed. Was this the crew? He looked around, finding another veiled alien. Steps in the corridor did not make him turn; he could already hear that it was Gabriel.

"They were six, as far as I understand." Gabriel said. He walked to the unveiled one. "These two were infected in their sleep. I understand that the force field holding the eggs in stasis malfunctioned because of some electro magnetic wave from the sun in this system."

"The eggs, they were in the cargo hold?" Hicks asked.

"Yes. The ship woke them so they could repair some minor systems, but by that time, two of them were already too far gone. By the time they discovered it, a third member of their crew had been infected. After that the log ends. I guess they chose to abandon ship."

"So… we have as most half, three, of the crew left, in the jungle. And as much as two Xenomorphs if the three infected crew members turned?"

"As we killed one Xenomorph outside… yes. The crew is probably in the jungle, if they are all alive." Gabriel sat down next to the dead alien and began examining him. "I think I can repair this ship." Gabriel said as he dismantled the weapons from the body of the dead alien. Hicks rose and slowly began walking around the room.

"What do you need?" He asked.

"I should have a look in the engine room before I make any promises." Gabriel said.

"Then let's go, the faster we get this ship online… the faster we get out of here." They slowly moved out into the hallway. Hicks opened the door to the engine room and looked inside. It was quiet, so he stepped inside.

"Don't fire on anything in here, or we'll be here for months." Gabriel advised while moving inside. "Now the leak should be somewhere here according to the computer…" They descended a floor down to the main engine.

"I thought you did not understand their language." Hicks commented.

"I do not, but some commands are easier to identify than others, I am an advanced computer after all." Gabriel stopped, looking at something that looked like Xenomorph acid damage on a conduit. "This is it."

"This is why the ship won't fly? That little dent?" Hicks grinned, the thought was ridiculous. He usually regained him calm temper quickly.

"Well, there are some circuits here and there, but such things could be repaired in an instant. But, I guess they do not carry spare parts." Gabriel said. "I should be able to get what I need from the dropship."

"Back there? What about the rest of the unit?" Hicks asked.

"It is safe here, now that we have secured the ship…" Gabriel said. "So, who would you like to bring?"

"Let's see what Stronghold has to say about that." Hicks said dryly. Gabriel followed him up and into the hallway.

"They are just scared." Gabriel said.

"They should know better." Hicks said, but stopped by the buckled door. "There is something moving in there." He said. Gabriel pressed his ear to the door. He raised a finger.

"It is trying to open the door, I think. No… now it stopped." He listened some more.

"Xenomorphs hunt at night, mostly. Perhaps one of the others?" Hicks asked. Gabriel shrugged.

"It left, but we should be extremely cautions if we decide to exit this ship. But I guess you are right, it was most probably one of the others." Hicks nodded and they continued to the control centre. As they entered, Day was upon them with the rifle.

"Oh, it's you." He said while lowering the weapon. The others looked at him.

"We need to get back to the dropship." Gabriel said. "When we get the spare parts, we can repair this ship and leave his planet."

"I am still in command here." Stronghold said. "So I will go, Creux and Vespasian will stay here. Will you manage?" Vespasian stood up.

"We'll be fine; I'll booby trap the entrance outside of the ship when you leave. If anyone tries to make it inside…" He shook his head.

"How long until the sun sets?" Stronghold asked.

"Six hours."

"The aliens are close, be prepared this time!" Hicks said. "Remember the training?"

"In your dungeons?" Vespasian asked. "All too well…" Hicks just shook his head. Taking his helmet, he walked outside.


	10. Chapter 10

_Predator_

The jungle was even denser than Hicks remembered it. Everywhere big, wet leaves encroached on his personal space. The mud stuck to the shoes. The company was not the merriest either. Stronghold was intently focused on the life signs detector; she had not said a word since they left the crashed alien ship. Day and Gabriel walked silently behind her. Day had finally got hold of Darwin, who had been worried sick in the dropship. Day had tried to explain everything as good as he could to him. Hicks walked last. He felt it was better that way. If anyone was to be ambushed, he felt he should be the one to go down first.

Sometime by early evening, he began hearing noises. They were almost indistinguishable from the sounds they made as they walked, but they were softer, as if they were padded.

"Are you sure there's nothing on that detector?" He asked.

"Nothing." Said Stronghold. Day held up until Hicks came up to him.

"You think there's something there?" He asked. He was not frightened, but rather agitated.

"I don't know." Said Hicks. "Don't you hear anything?"

"Nothing." Day said, shaking his head. At the very same moment something big crashed down behind Hicks and in front of Stronghold. The first Hicks saw was how Day flew away towards a tree. The hit knocked him out completely and he sagged down by it. Before Hicks had the time to turn, something heavy hit him on his back and made him fall straight down into the mud. As he looked up from the ground, he could not see anything! Confused, he wondered whether the thing that had hit him had run away? The answer came as a spear like object hit him in the head, making him fall down again. The helmet rolled off his head. _Were they invisible?_ Feeling nauseous from the hit, he managed to look at Stronghold; she seemed to be wrestling with some invisible force. The world felt like a roller coaster, spinning around in all possible directions. Up, down, left and right, getting up was not an option even though he tried. Where was Gabriel? Touching his forehead with his hand he felt the blood on his fingers. Something moved past him, but seemed to stop. Something hit Hicks in the back of the neck. He fell down on the ground, this time unmoving.

Gabriel stood still as a rock behind a tree. Being cold by nature, the aliens would not see him, as they hunted mostly with infrared. He could see Hicks, but he had been knocked out. So was Day. The alien that had wrestled with Stronghold had finally captured her. There was silence for a while before the two aliens uncloaked. They said something to each other before one of them carried away Hicks and the now backbound Stronghold, and Day. Gabriel took their bearing, guessing that the one carrying Day was going back to their ship and the other somewhere into the forest.

His priority was to protect Hicks… but how was he supposed to do that? With a 10 mm gun? He needed help. As the aliens disappeared, he quickly turned and began running towards the dropship. Being much quicker than any human, and more agile he made the trip in twenty minutes. The sun was setting behind the thick clouds, but it looked like they would soon leave the sky and allow the night sky to be seen within hours. The weather was fickle on this planet. There would be no more rain. Gabriel jumped out of a pair of bushes and looked for scratches, if any water got into his system he would be fried… Finding none, he turned to the position of the dropship, finding it smoking. Stopping dead in his tracks he looked and listened.

"Darwin!?" He called after a moment of silence. In a pair of bushes to his left a green light shone up the jungle. It was Darwin waving a glowing stick. Running over to him, Gabriel saw that Darwin was wet from top til' toe. "How long have you been…"

"A few hours…" Darwin said. "As the first blast hit, it rocked the entire ship. I thought they had bazookas or something! Realizing that there would be nothing of me left if the ship blew, I ran! I fell into a puddle to hide, and I have been in that puddle until you showed up!" Gabriel nodded.

"Very clever. They most often hunt in infrared!" Darwin's eyebrows rose.

"That explains why they left… were they the aliens from the ship?" Darwin asked. Gabriel nodded.

"Yes. And… Turner and Johnson are dead. They got Hicks and Stronghold. One of them dragged away Day towards the ship."

"Where Creux and Vespasian are waiting?" Darwin asked.

"Yes." Gabriel answered. They began walking to the destroyed dropship. Well there, Gabriel managed to salvage many of the parts he needed to repair the alien ship. Certain he could make the alien ship fly, he turned to Darwin.

"Do you want to stay here?" He asked.

"No!"

"Can you run?" Gabriel asked.

"Me? I can run for days!" Darwin answered. "Lead on!" Gabriel looked towards the forest, appreciating their position to the best of his ability; he pointed and started running back. Darwin followed swiftly behind.


	11. Chapter 11

_Cave_

Hick's head was pounding like crazy as he came about. At first, he thought it was from the blow of the spear, then he saw that it was not the case. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was hanging, upside down. His arms were hanging under his head, they were tied together, and so were his feet by which he hung. It was incredibly uncomfortable, and the worst part was that all his gear was gone. Dangling by his feet Hicks looked around, but found himself alone in something that looked like a natural cavern. His feet were tied with some sort of natural material that could probably be cut off with a knife… if he only had one! He tried looking around some more, but his feet hurt so much he stopped moving. Instead he slowly rotated around by the rope by which he hung. At least the cave looked inhabited.

He continued to rotate, but was then appalled when something began appearing in his field of sight. It was something that was hanging from the ceiling. Hicks' mouth opened, and then closed. He just stared at the red apparition in front of himself. Was it… human? Was it Turner? Stripped of his skin? Hicks could not blink before the thing had rotated out of his sight. He looked up and realized that he was actually hanging himself. That thought made his head almost explode. Was it these other aliens, were they responsible for this? Would they skin him next?! Before he could do anything, something heavy seemed to jump down into the cave from an opening higher up. Another thump was heard. So they were two… Hicks remembered Gabriel's words. Slowly he began coming within sight of them. And as he saw them… although he was upside down… he could not be sure they were prettier than the Xenomorphs… At least the Xenos were perfected for killing; the aliens in front of him looked…ragtag. They were…_grunting_ at him? He could not explain the noises any better!

"What do you want?" He tried. One of them hissed at him. For a while they seemed to eat something they had in their crates. Hicks tried to untangle his hands, but they were tied too hard. It felt like he could go back into unconsciousness at any time, every part of him was hurting and pounding by the unnatural position. Knowing he would not wake up again if the lost consciousness, he gathered his remaining powers and flexed himself upwards. He grabbed his feet, feeling his eyesight improving as his head drained of the excess blood. He looked back at the two aliens… did they have hair? Or was it something else…? He now saw that they wore masks. Both of them looked at him and said something, the one posing as a leader brandished a knife. They both approached him.

For a moment, Hicks felt fear crawling through him, but then, he began to smile. Finally he broke out into a laughter, looking first at the two aliens, who looked angry about his laughter, and then behind them, where a Xenomorph had raised its razor sharp tail at one of the aliens. As it plunged its tail through him, Hicks fell down on the other alien, pulling the knife from his big bulky hand. It probably worked because he managed to take it in the second the alien was preoccupied with the fate of his partner. Hicks once again bent upwards and began filing at the rope. For a minute or so he completely focused on the task, oblivious to the raging fight below him. And then, he fell.

As he opened his eyes, his head was pounding, just not as bad as it had before. It was real physical pain now, from the fall. He looked over at the two aliens, they were still battling! Such stamina was non-human… He got up on his knees, feeling the water from the cave floor running down from his hair. He thought about that old saying that one could drown in a puddle of water, feeling lucky not to have fallen face down. A roar brought him back to the real world. Hicks looked over at the two giants brawling; they were caught in a stalemate on the floor.

Looking around, Hicks quickly located his stripped gear on the floor, and managed to drag himself there, as his feet simply could not stand being walked on after the strangling grip of the ropes. He scurried through the pile on the floor and pulled out a grenade. Pulling the splinter he tried aiming as well as he could with his still tied hands and tossed it. With a "_pling, pling, pling_" it jumped to a halt close to the two brawling aliens. Hicks dove down under his armour as the explosion rocked the cave. Peeking out, he saw that the hunter was quite out, but the Xenomorph… well he knew it would take more than one grenade to kill it. He pulled the splinter and tossed another one. Another great bang hurt his ears and scorched the left side of his arm. As he crawled on the cave floor he finally got to his pulse rifle, which he managed to pull towards himself. It was a two hand weapon, so it took a lot of strength to lift it solely by the right hand grip. Hicks managed to press it up with the help of his knees and then heaved it up on the rock. Spying over the ridge of the stone, he saw that the Xenomorph was recovering from the blow, although it was quite wounded. Hicks let loose half a magazine of bullets, trying to aim at the oblong black head. It noticed him and gave up a chilling scree before its head burst open from the bullets. Yellow acid spilled forth from the wound and drenched the alien underneath it.

Stillness fell over the cave. Hicks swallowed and looked around a final time. If there were any more Xenomorphs out there, it was not here. Sitting back against a rock, he surveyed his own situation. He could not do anything with his hands tied up, so he made it his first priority to free them from the chocking ropes. It took a good half hour of painstaking work before they were free. As the blood flowed back to them, they began to hurt tremendously. Trying to distract himself, Hicks pulled together his gear, or what was left of it, and strapped everything on again. His armour was, although in one piece, not wearable. It was buckled and it would cause more damage than protection if he wore it. His pulse rifle was OK though, so was his sidearm and ammo belt. As was his helmet. The communication radio and video link was out though, and he left them. He also took the big knife that the hunter had so kindly supplied him with. The grip was a little too big, but the blade seemed to be perfectly sharpened, so he could fix the grip later. That was, if he made it off this planet alive.

His feet still did not feel like they would hold him for long, so he slowly moved to the stash of goods that the hunter aliens had gathered from the ship. For a moment he wished to cut down the horrid remains from Turner, but decided against it, he could simply not reach him in his state. Besides, where would he put the body?

The noises coming from the jungle at night were different from those on earth. There were deep sounding mutters and sighs and none of the usual high pitched noises of Earth. Hicks had not set his foot on Earth for a long time, but he still remembered the training for the US Colonial Marines. It seemed like child's play compared to this. He dug down into the last crate, his fingertips moving over something cold. It was made out of metal and as he pulled it out it seemed to a thing resembling a Frisbee. A high tech Frisbee. It had holes enough to fit his fingers into them. After looking around the empty cave he dared let go of his pulserifle and try the Frisbee. As he set his hand around it, it seemed to vibrate. Cautiously he tossed it away. The sheer impact it made into the cave wall in front of him made him grab his rifle.

"By all that is holy!" Hicks exclaimed. Something behind him made a silent beeping noise. Hicks quickly pointed the rifle towards the Hunter that lay behind his back. It was not the dead alien that had made the noise. Slowly he crawled over and saw that the sound emanated from an armpiece. Once again he looked around before pulling it off from the arm of the dead alien. It had been activated by the flying disc. Ducking for cover, as he had a feeling something might just explode if he pushed a button, he pressed the small point on the interactive display. The disc, being lodged in the cave wall, dislodged itself with a high pitched noise, probably ultrasonic, and came flying straight at Hicks. He ducked as it was about to hit him, but it just powered down as it came within range of him, and fell down on the floor next to him. Amazed, he picked it up. It was like having an invisible dog, fetching the Frisbee for you!

Deciding it could serve him well, he found the clip that held it to a belt, removed it from the alien, and placed in his own belt. Now, he had his own trophy..! That thought made him smirk. He strapped the armpiece on and picked up the pulserifle. Feeling tired and wet as the adrenaline began wearing off and with his feet still hurting, he began looking for a way out. Finding a rope, he saw that it was the way out of the cave. Scaling the rock was easy, as there were many outcroppings. Besides, he could easily pull himself up without the use of his feet, just as he had in his ventilation maze back on Troy. As he emerged, the foul smell of death was replaced by a calm breeze coming down from the mountains. A full moon shone down on the jungle and a blue nebula filled half the sky. Showering the jungle in blue light.

The gentle rustle of the leaves calmed Hicks' worried mind. He went through his equipment, checking the few pieces of equipment he had left. His pulse rifle, a couple of grenades and ammo clips on his belt and his helmet. And of course, his new alien gear.

"Hicks!" He heard a voice call out. Startled he looked around. "Hey!"

"Who's there?" He called. He got up on his knees, feeling them turn wet from the ground.

"Stronghold! I'm here! In the tree!" Hicks looked up. Turning on the flashlight on the rifle, he saw that tied to the trunk, about three metres above ground, Stronghold sat, looking down on him. She was alive!

"You're alive!" He laughed. "That's great!" He stood up and walked over to the tree. It was as far as his feet could carry him and he sat down again. "I thought I was the only one here!"

"Those ugly bastards tied me to the tree and left med here! Are those the aliens that built the ship?" She asked. Hicks hung the pulserifle over his back and made a jump up to the nearest branch, heaving himself up on it. From there he could reach Stronghold's ropes and cut them off.

"They are, yes." Hicks said.

"Was it you shooting down there?" She asked, massaging her wrists.

"Yes, there were three aliens down there, two of these hunters and one Xenomorph. They're dead now." Hicks returned back to the jungle floor. Stronghold jumped down next to him. Besides the bruises from the struggle with the Hunters, she seemed fine. He wondered why.

"Dead?" She looked at him. He nodded. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"They hung me upside down." He said. "My feet are screwed." He showed her his swollen ankles.

"Oh." She said. "Well, that's why I'm here, right? We'll get back to the ship one way or another." Hicks nodded.

"Thank you." He said. He looked down into the lit up cave, deciding on keeping the fate of Turner to himself. Standing up and leaning on Stronghold, who held him up by his belt, they began walking back.


	12. Chapter 12

_Facehugger_

A cold fresh wind had begun to blow as Gabriel and Darwin neared the ship. Slowing down, they snuck up to the entrance. Gabriel opened the first door and they walked into the airlock. He held his gun at the ready, and Darwin had his.

"Do you know how to use that?" Darwin asked.

"Of course, I'm a custom model, remember?" Gabriel answered. Darwin just shook his head. Gabriel pushed the panel to open the inner door. Cold air flowed over them as they stepped inside. They headed straight for the control room. It was not a nice sight that met them. Smeared over the left side wall was a splatter of blood, below lay what looked to be Vespasian. Darwin looked angrily around, but did not say anything.

"That is the work of the hunters." Gabriel said. On the right wall were marks of bullets. "He probably tried to defend himself." Gabriel approached the terminals, wiping away some blood. He understood the computer enough to make it reveal the video logs. "Look at this." He said. Darwin came up to him. The video recording from the outside showed the alien entering the ship, carrying Day. Gabriel jumped to the next recorded movement. It showed the hunter going outside again.

"So… he's not here? Then we need to find Day and Creux!" Darwin said. "They might still be alive!"

"I doubt it." Gabriel said. "But we will look." He signed for Darwin to follow and they exited out into the red hallway once again. Walking without making any sounds, they rounded the back of the ship, with the buckled door and continued to the right side of the ship. Gabriel, who saw better, tapped with his fingers on Darwin's shoulder and pointed. Pinned like an insect, Creux sat in the far end of the hallway with what looked to be a long spear right through her. Gabriel turned his attention to the room where the dead veiled aliens lay, seeing a pair of boots on one of the beds. "There's Day." He said. Darwin hesitantly walked inside the room, whilst Gabriel kneeled down next to Creux.

He gently touched her neck, as to check for a pulse. She jerked at his touch and her eyes slowly opened. Gabriel felt she was quite cold. That meant she had not long to live. She managed to tilt her head backwards, looking up at him. She had a sad smile on her pale face.

"Is there anything you want to say?" He asked.

"It was nice… working with you." She said.

"I am sad we could not have more time." Gabriel responded.

"You are…sad?" She gave up a faint smile. Then her eyes looked at Darwin who had emerged out from the other room. "Tell Hicks we're sorry we did not… believe him."

"We will." Darwin said, swallowing.

"I think I'll just…sleep for a while now." She finally said. A smile faded from her lips. It really did look like she fell asleep, her body relaxing. Gabriel rose and took hold of the spear, pulling it out with a quick jerk. Darwin, as if waking from a trance, suddenly looked agitated.

"There's something on Day." He said. That got Gabriel's attention.

"What?" He asked, walking into the crew quarters. The dim light let him see that there was something over Day's face. For a while he stood still, reaching back to the files that Bishop had provided him with before his departure to Troy.

"It is a facehugger." He said, approaching Day. He once again checked the pulse. Gabriel looked around. Could he make the stasis pods work?

"How do you know what it is?"

"I have heard of them from Hicks' reports." Gabriel said. That was true. Although he had many more reports about the facehuggers than just Hicks' reports. Darwin came a little bit closer, but Gabriel warded him off. "It's about to let go." He said, as he saw the tail staring to release its grip around Day's neck. He backed away slowly. "Be ready to shoot it when it comes off." He said to Darwin.

They stood silently as the hugger began letting go of Day's face, releasing each of the bony fingers from around his face. Then suddenly it pushed away and fell down on the floor. Darwin did not waste a second and released half a clip into the thing.

"What did it do?" Darwin asked, but ran up to Day as he began to cough. "Hey, are you alright?" Gabriel went up to one of the empty beds and touched the console. It was difficult to read the hunter's language, but he had managed to understand some basic commands.

"What… was that?" Day rasped. "Where are we?"

"We need to get you into stasis." Gabriel said. He pulled Day up from and shoved him into the other bed. "Thank you for your cooperation." He said and turned on the mechanism, freezing Day in the middle of a question. He turned his head quickly to Darwin. "I need to get Hicks." Darwin, standing still in a corner of the room gave him a concerned look.

"Don't you think it's better to stay here?"

"My mission is to protect him, I will go, and you can stay here. Put what's left of Vespasian and Creux into the other pods."

"Are you sure…" Darwin began, but finally shook his head. "Alright, go I'll make sure they get into the pods." Gabriel nodded and made his way outside. The night was still dark, as if space had swallowed all the light. By his internal clock, sunrise was only about one hour away, but it did not look like it. He pulled out his gun and removed the safety. Whatever jumped him would get a bullet straight between the eyes, if it had eyes.

Hicks sat down on one of the tree trunks in the jungle. It was slippery and cold, but served its purpose: relieving his feet for a while. Stronghold stood quietly by his side, listening for noises that could reveal hostiles. They had slowly made their way back to the path between their ship and the crashed alien vessel. Stronghold had tried to hail someone on the radio, but all she got was static. Hicks did not like it, as it meant that Darwin was not where he was supposed to be. He only hoped that it was Gabriel who had got to him and not the aliens.

"Turner is dead, is he not?" Stronghold suddenly asked. Hicks let out a small sigh whilst massaging his feet.

"Yes." He said. "I saw his body." She looked down on him.

"Do you want to know why they spared me?" She asked. Hicks stood up, returning her gaze.

"Yes." He said. Was there a special reason?

"It is a very simple reason." She said. "I am with child." Hicks blinked as his mind stopped working for a while. It all made sense. Then he gave up a smile.

"Then that child saved your life." He said. "Children are…" He started, but thought about Newt and his smile faded. "Let's try to move some more huh?"

"Children are…?" She asked.

"Smart." Hicks said, shrugging. "We should hurry." Stronghold nodded. The grey and brown trees rustled from the wind. Above the trees, cold stars were blinking. Hicks limped as quickly as he could. Then there was a flash of pale skin before him. Hicks' right arm shot up with his rifle, as did Stronghold's.

"Dwayne…" Gabriel said, his hands raised. Hick let his rifle fall down. "Dwayne." Gabriel said again, taking his arm. On it was the hunter's arm piece. "Where did you get this...?" He twisted his arm a little, and then looked down at his belt, seeing the Frisbee.

"Gabriel!" Stronghold cried. "You scared the daylights out of me!"

"This is mine." Hicks said. "You have the ship."

"I can't guarantee anything." Gabriel began.

"Is everyone alright?" Hicks asked, leaning on a tree.

"The hunter, last one, killed Vespasian and Creux. He also let one of the facehuggers impregnate Day. Probably to get more prey. They hunt Xenomorphs, it would be logical." Hicks swallowed. Memories of the creeping things…. The research lab… Had Ripley and Newt really been…

"Dead?" Stronghold asked. "And Day… what happened to him…?"

"I put him in stasis just after it let go." Gabriel said. "That is all I can do."

"Darwin?" Hicks asked. He was really going to kill that thing, he thought. Really, really…

"I found him. He is in the ship. Alive when I left him."

"Why did you leave him!" Hicks asked.

"I am here to protect _you_." Gabriel said.

"I almost forgot you were a droid." Stronghold said.

"We go there, now!" Hicks said.

"I will assist you." Gabriel said. Hicks felt angry that he could not move faster, but Gabriel was indeed stronger than Stronghold and almost lifted him off the ground at times. All Hicks could do was to try and keep a lookout after the aliens.


	13. Chapter 13

_Showdown_

Gabriel slowed down as they began approaching the open plain before the crashed ship. The sun would rise soon, and the sky was purple with thin pink clouds at the horizon.

"Stop." Hicks said. Gabriel stopped.

"Why?"

"Where would you be if you were an alien hunter?" Hicks asked.

"You're thinking ambush?" Stronghold asked.

"I'm thinking we run." Gabriel said.

"Yes, you bolt for the ship. I'll… cover you." Hicks said, swallowing. He wasn't going to get very far on his swollen ankles. Suddenly, Hicks could hear the quiet, quiet thumping above himself, his eyes widening. Gabriel heard it too. "Run." Hicks said. Gabriel let him go into a bush and pushed Stronghold towards the ship.

"Run. We will cover you. Quickly!" Stronghold looked at Hicks, who nodded. She sprinted away towards the ship and Hicks raised his rifle. It was dead quiet around him. Gabriel was behind his back, covering the jungle side. Hicks slowly let one hand slip down to his belt, and took the Frisbee. He felt the Gabriel's elbow nudge him. "Fire straight up. Lure it out."

"Ok." Hicks whispered, feeling Gabriel back away. Hicks took a deep breath and then fell on his back. Without the armour it was hard to hit the ground. Still he raised his pulserifle and fired away over twenty shots straight up into the canopy. To his delight he could hear something there now, and an angry growl could be heard. A cascade of fluorescent green liquid rained down on Hicks. He glanced at Gabriel, who was aiming his small pistol at the canopy, still as a statue.

Then the grey leaves rustled and a big black shape jumped down before Hicks. It was one of the hunters, broad and armoured, with a wound on his right leg, bleeding… green blood. He also had a mask, which was focused on Hicks. The alien also had a Frisbee, and in his hand a short stick. With the push of a large finger, it telescoped out into a spear. Hicks quickly glanced at his rifle. It had ten shots left. He wasn't sure if the hunter was saying something, or if it was a battlecry, but a second later a single shot rang out through the forest, and the hunter growled loudly, dropping his spear. Gabriel had placed a bullet in his hand. The hunter took a step forward, but Hicks' trigger finger quickly emptied his last rounds into the belly of the beast and he fell. Hick rolled away, standing on one knee.

"Is it dead?!" He barked. Gabriel stood quiet for a while, focused on the hunter.

"No." He said, firing two more shots, this time at the head. Then he slowly walked up to the tree, pressing his back against it. "Run." He said, only his eyes moving now, towards something in the forest. Hicks' eyes widened, and he spun around half running half limping towards the crashed ship.

As he glanced back, he could see a Xenomorph emerge from the forest, shimmering black, hissing. It focused straight on Hicks, disregarding Gabriel, and leapt after him like a greased bolt of lightning. For the first time Hicks was happy that he did not have his armour on. It would have slowed him. But then he thought, it had saved him from the acid on Acheron… As he saw a rifle in front of himself, he jumped sideways, hearing how Stronghold opened up fire against the Xenomorph, which veered off at her instead.

Hicks took a breath and turned, looking at the Frisbee. He could not let it get to Stronghold! Unsure of how to hold the damn thing, he flung it as hard as he could in the direction of the Xenomorph. To his surprise it did fly, despite its weight. For half a second he followed it as it flew, and then missed the main body of the alien. Instead it went right through its tail and cut it off.

The Xenomorph gave up a shivering cry, giving Stronghold enough time to hide in the airlock. The alien now turned back to him, hissing. Hicks looked down on his armpiece, pushing the same button as before. The disc hummed to life, jolting towards him. Prepared this time, he caught it, cutting his hand in the process. He had managed to back away a considerable distance and managed to throw it away again. The alien just dodged it.

This time it was Hicks' turn to fire and he pulled the pulserifle from his shoulder, littering the ground with grenades as he looked behind himself. Gabriel was looking intently at what he was doing, then he pulled the spear from the ground. Hicks lobbed a few more grenades at the approaching darkness, and then ran for it.

"Dwayne!" He could hear Gabriel call. "Catch!" Hicks focused and caught the spear from Gabriel, spinning round to face the Xenomorph. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, he felt himself breathe. He felt the soft ground under his boots as he steadied himself. To his left the dawn was breaking, rays of light hitting their battleground. He put the butt of the big spear to the ground and pointed it to the black chest in front of him.

Suddenly life sped up again. His eyes widened and he crouched, holding the spear in place as the Xenomorph leapt onto of him. As the spear vibrated with the weight of the body above Hicks quickly released it, watching the yellow acid run down the shaft. He fell down on the ground, trying to evade the snapping jaws of the speared Xenomorph. He rolled to the side, feeling the breath of the gaping mouth pass him by.

Hicks noticed Gabriel drawing his gun and managed to jump away, feeling his poor ankles were about to give up. Rolling into the grass he looked back at the Xenomorph, who was still struggling with the spear in its chest. Five crackling shots echoed, burying themselves into the long black head. Twitching, the last of the Xenomorphs came to an end.

Hicks rolled onto his back, relaxing. His hand went about the pockets on his pants and finally found his pack of cigarettes. He pulled it out, lighting one as he looked at the dark blue sky and the thin pink clouds of dawn. The blue nebula was still visible in the sky, as were some stars. Without the aliens, he thought, their galaxy was quite a pretty place.


	14. Chapter 14

_Gateway_

Hicks woke slowly from hypersleep, it was always uncomfortable, but this time he woke more at peace than before. After sitting up he noticed he were out of the alien's ship's hypersleep beds, on a simple medical bed. Next to him was Gabriel, reading something. He looked up at Hicks as he woke.

"Dwayne." He said, his face blank. They had all been "put to sleep" as Gabriel had repaired the ship.

"Gabriel… how long…?" Hicks asked drowsily, rubbing his blurry eyes.

"Four months. As soon as they heard you were in stasis, the recovery mission was downgraded to a level 2." Hick gave up a rue smile.

"Because we killed all the aliens?" Gabriel looked up at him.

"Yes, no samples that decayed. And the ship would wait."

"Where are the others?" Hicks asked. Again he was alone… he swallowed.

"Stasis." Gabriel said. "Bishop wished to talk with you first." Gabriel looked up at Hicks. "He wants Day." Hicks blinked.

"No." He managed. Gabriel stood up, retrieving some energy bars and clothes.

"It's in his chest. Attaches itself to tissue like a cancer." Hicks rubbed his forehead in anger.

"No… Gabriel. Where is he?" Gabriel showed with a hand towards a door. Hicks pulled his usual USCM clothes on with unsteady legs and took the bars with him as he walked over to the door. He pushed the display by the door with the palm of his hand. Blinking at the stark light, he realized where he was. It was the familiar warmth of his home-system's star, Sol. In front of him was a wide garden. Below a domed starry sky, there were trees and bushes, grass and even a small icecream stand. Contemporary shops lined the peripheral walkways some floors above his own.

He must have walked out to the medical facility's private garden, located at the Gateway Station orbiting Earth, but he still felt like this was a completely new world. It was a new world in a sense. It certainly qualified as one in terms of size!

He eyed the inner walkway and his gaze stuck at a tall lean man whose figure he now easily recognized as Bishop's. He was gazing at a child swinging back and forth on a swing. Obviously he had not seen Hicks yet. He looked to be botherless, but not in the way that Gabriel looked. It was not a blank dull gaze, but more one of relaxed alertfulness. As Hicks approached, Bishop noticed him out of the corner of his eye and turned, his face taking a more serious, but still relaxed, tone.

"Corporal!" He said, giving a small nod to Hicks.

"Good day." Hicks said dryly.

"A good day it is. But you are probably wondering why you are here?" Bishop asked.

"_You want Day_?" Hicks managed bluntly. "No. There are limits to what I allow. Take the thing out of him."

"You understand that it attaches itself to…"

"Gabriel froze it as soon as the facehugger let go! No time for it to do that." Hicks argued. Bishop's eyes gave up an odd sparkle, and he managed a small one-sided smirk.

"Hicks. You can be blunt at times. But beneath all that you're dangerously sharp." Hicks shrugged, he did not understand why he was receiving a compliment all of a sudden. He stood silent, looking at Bishop, then at the stars.

"We got the ship, and the alien corpses, technology. I suppose we can try to get it out of Day. Without promises. You know it is hard." Bishop said, leaning on a railing. He was referring to Ellen… and Newt. "I see why you would… be invested in getting it out of Day."

"You don't know anything about me." Hick managed.

"Nor you about me." Bishop countered, making Hicks shrug again, dismissing the man as he crossed the arms. "It is pointless to be angry, Corporal. You played your cards well. If you think Day will be an asset, I will do what I can for him." Hicks took a long breath. What if it would have been a civilian? Of no use to Weyland-Yutani? He tried not to think about it. "Good we have that settled." Bishop continued. Hicks looked around, besides the children, there was no one here.

"This is not on the record, is it?" Bishop turned to look at him again.

"I was hoping that you were clever enough to understand that, and I am happy you did. Nothing of what we do is on the record. But… yes I have not 'made up my mind' about Day yet. Although I represent the Company, I still have individuals that oppose my work. Luckily I have few competitors. The technology I am, and you are, involved with is… exotic."

"Exotic…" Hicks mumbled. "It's like Indians would have got access to nuclear weapons."

"Yet… it is _key_ to our survival in this galaxy. Do you know these… hunters… Predators that you encountered on your last mission actually visit Earth?"

"Gabriel told me something about it, but not much." Hicks said.

"They used us as prey… and as incubators for their Xenomorph prey. And we worshipped them for it. Imagine that." Bishop said. Hicks just stood silent. He could not imagine it. "You see now? What if they decide we, the little dumb humans are not worth having around anymore?" Bishop raised an eyebrow. "That is why your mission was such high priority. I did not tell you what pressure there was on you, and me, on successfully bringing home a piece of technology or a biological specimen."

"We managed to bring back both." Hicks said. "But there are too many casualties to make it a successful mission."

"You cannot blame yourself for the fate of Turner and the other marines." Bishop said, sighing slightly. "Before the mission I tried to make _you_ a Sergeant, but my associates wouldn't have it. They thought that I was trying to gain power by placing someone I trusted in the lead of the mission." Hicks nodded his head slowly. It usually went that way, in trying to limit Bishop's power; the Company had also created an unstable unit. The FWM01 was especially vulnerable, as he had been the only one really knowing the dangers, but he had not been able to use his knowledge.

"But Johnson's disappearance at night had not had to do with the chain of command." He said.

"No, but you were not on the watch either, as I understand." Bishop said. "But let us not dwell on the past. I have been in contact with my associates once again and they are now more convinced that you will be able to lead the group." Bishop grinned. "The USCM command promoted you to Sergeant this morning."

"You did that? For me?" Hicks asked. He could barely believe it!

"Hicks… I can count the people I trust on one of my hands. You are one of them. Do not make me regret it." Bishop said, looking over the park. His eyes soon returned to Hicks.

"It goes both ways. I appreciate that you helped Day, I understand that it was not what the Company wanted." Hicks said. "Don't give me any reason to distrust you and we will have an understandment."

"You take and you give… yes. I think it will work." Bishop said, nodding. "But you must keep a level head. Sometimes it will be… difficult to separate personal and professional issues."

"Says a man who made an android look like himself?" Hicks asked, smirking. But he also understood the difficulties that could arise from being involved both with the Company and the USCM. Bishop just shrugged.

"As I understood it, you wished for a smaller group this time around?"

"It is easier." Hicks said. "Firepower is not key to defeating them."

"Stronghold will not return, for obvious reasons." Bishop said, a small smile. "Turns out Turner was the father." Hicks blinked at the fact.

"Turner...?" He said unbelievingly. "Thank god she did not see him..."

"Yes, Gabriel told me what you found. These... Predators have some quite distasteful ways. But I ramble. As I let Gabriel arrange things on Troy, I thought you might have the little less imposing task of visiting our research facility. The security chief there needs a helping hand in finalizing the security measures."

"Like a vacation." Hicks said. Bishop nodded.

"Well then, I wish you luck, Sergeant." He said, shaking Hicks' hand.

"Thank you." Hicks said. Bishop nodded and returned to gazing over the spaceport's park.


	15. Chapter 15

_Epilogue_

Two months later, Bishop slowly scrolled down the message on the screen of his computer. Licking his lower lip he saw the potential trouble this could cause. Somehow, a small a ridiculously underfinanced expedition had managed to set up a research base smack in the middle of the interest zone of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Besides settling on a prime spot of xeno-investigation, they had now, somehow, unearthed technology far too advanced for them to be able to make sense of.

Sure, Bishop thought, in a few decades they would probably decipher the language enough to understand the basics. But surely they would need many more years to even begin to implement bits of the ancient technology. Weyland-Yutani on the other hand… they could begin work with it directly. People did not know, but many of the company's technological developments had begun from breakthroughs in alien technology. Indeed, they were the only company that had the resources and know-how to actually make use of such finds within a reasonable period of time!

He also knew why he had been given this information. Being a synthetic component designer he usually had his hands full with improving his synthetics, not to say promoting them and trying to outcompete competitors on the market. But then he had a good number of projects on the side, some entrusted to him by other corporation members, some started at his own initiative. And then he had the FWM01 unit.

This was the reason he had been given this information. It was the only one of his projects that he had started based on the feeling of his gut rather than his shrewd, cold intellect. Bishop knew he had gambled on the physical and mental stability of Hicks, but the Corporal had pulled through, and been rewarded. The corporation's gains from the retrieved alien wreck had been immeasurable. Besides that, he had tied Hicks closer in loyalty to him and the company than to the USCM. And Hicks knew it! Bishop laughed to himself. If he kept it up like this, he would eventually become a great asset indeed!

He settled himself as the door opened and Hicks entered, as summoned. It could not be missed that he was of military background, as his clothes were of the Marines and not Company standard. His hair was longer now, not very long, but not military cut. Sporting the acid burns from the Xenomorph encounter from his mission to Acheron on the left side of his face, he looked older than he was. His slightly rounded deep eyes were far too caring though, especially for that kind of business Bishop usually involved himself in.

"Bishop." He said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes as he sat down in the armchair opposite of Bishop's desk. His newly received sergeant's marks glimmered it the faint light.

"Hicks." Bishop gave up a small smile. He enjoyed being in control of this force of nature. He was offered a cigarette, and took it. "We have a problem." He said. Hicks eyed him.

"I am not your personal problem-solver." He remarked with a grouchy voice.

"I said 'we' not 'I'." Bishop countered. "Some civilian entrepreneurs have got themselves into a slight… pickle." Hicks gave up a laugh.

"A _pickle_…?" He laughed, but straightened. "What have they found?" He put one hand on his knee, taking a more serious pose.

"I won't brief you here… Gabriel will brief you all en route. But simply put, the researchers have dug where they are not supposed to dig. They are funded by some little consortium of meaningless entrepreneurs, have no idea of the danger they are exposed to by opening these alien ruins, and will probably feel that a forceful eviction by the Marines infringes on their liberties. I already cleared the mission with your 'superiors', so this is not a black ops operation."

"Yes it is." Hicks said. "You want that site for yourselves." Bishop just gave him a glance. The man was either extremely blunt or very clever. He was leaning towards the latter.

"You get them out of there before they turn into hibernation chambers for those beasts, or whatever they found there, and we get the site, yes. You were not expecting charity, were you?" Hick looked to the side, and Bishop could almost feel the battle inside his mind. Yet Bishop's offer was not unreasonable in any way. He knew it. Hicks knew it.

"I see." Hicks finally said. "Gabriel has the details?"

"Yes…" Bishop eyed him. Why did he put so much trust in a synthetic?

"Don't give me that look." Hicks said. "I have a full understanding of what _it_ is."

"Do you really?" Bishop asked. Hicks waved him away.

"It's not like he's a computer. Like any human there is too much to know about him, but I do put some trust in his abilities!" Bishop nodded. Again the man had started from a stupid pretence and developed it into a valid argument. Bishop rose, nodding for Hicks to follow him.

"I have briefed Gabriel on the planet's history." Bishop said as they walked down the dimly lit hall. "You should speak to Day I suppose, as he still refuses to have much to do with me. Darwin will be your pilot." He stopped by the split in the hallway. "Try to bring back as much information as you can." He said. "Just like last time. How you handle the researchers is up to you." Hicks nodded, taking another cigarette. Without further words they split up.


End file.
